Mini ice age may have contributed to sixth-century famine, plague, and fall of empires

New Scientist : In AD 536, 540, and 547, huge volcanic eruptions sent into the sky massive amounts of particulate matter that blocked the Sun’s rays and caused an extended cold period that lasted until about AD 660. Now Ulf Büntgen of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow, and Landscape Research and his colleagues have used tree-ring data to link that little ice age to significant human social, cultural, and political events, including the rise and fall of certain civilizations, pandemics, and human migration. The reason, they say, is that such abrupt climatic changes can put stress on societies in numerous ways, including by shortening the growing season and causing famine and disease. But although the so-called Late Antique Little Ice Age may have caused problems for some people, others would have fared better, the researchers say. For example, on the Arabian peninsula, the climate may have become less dry, which would have provided the area’s nomadic people with increased vegetation and better nutrition for their eventual expansion into Europe.